"Our goals and objectives are very much clear; we want to contribute to creating a healthier esports environment in India": Dr Mitsu Chavda and Kshitij Vishwakarma of IEEF

Esports in India has seen enormous growth in the last few years. However, it has not been a smooth ride for the esports industry, with multiple cases of fraud hampering natural growth.

Inter Esports Exhibit Federation (IEEF) was formed with the aim of regulating the Indian esports space. Well-known personalities from different avenues of Indian esports joined hands to form the backbone of this non-profit organization.

Recently, IEEF announced that they are launching GameX, a global networking platform for people of the esports ecosystem. Along with GameX, they are launching ECHO, a grassroots initiative for schools and colleges to make the youth more aware about esports career prospects.

In an exclusive interview with Sportskeeda Esports’ Manodeep Mukherjee, Kshitij Vishwakarma, the Founder of IEEF, and Dr. Mitsu Chavda, the Esports Legal Advisor, opened up about the inner workings of IEEF, how GameX and ECHO came to be, and their future plans.

The following is an excerpt of the conversation.

---

Q1. The esports industry of India has boomed rapidly in the last few years, especially with the advent of mobile esports. With that backdrop in mind, how did the Inter Esports Exhibit Federation come into place?

Mitsu: Kshitij Vishwakarma, founder of IEEF, has been a gamer even before he hit puberty. As he grew up and as his roots went deep into esports, it came to his knowledge that there were a significant number of scams going on in the esports industry, and lots of people were being duped and cheated on.

Kshitij initially wanted to just run an awareness campaign against such scams, but then it struck to him that rather than that, he should expose such scams and frauds and should himself start the “clean up.” When talking to his friends about the initiative, he was instantly supported by Amey Khopkar, Anosh Claudius, and Dr Sumeet Dahiya. They joined Inter Esports Exhibit Federation as strong pillars.

There was always a question in our mind: can we make the esports community a cleaner place? We searched for the players with common thoughts, shared our ideas of cleaning the community, and formed IEEF as a voluntary arbitration center, which was later extended to all aspects of esports.

Q2. We have heard about a few scams regarding Indian esports tournaments. But with IEEF working at the ground level to combat this, how frequently do you see scams or shady business in the Indian esports scene?

Mitsu and Kshitij: Running IEEF is not an easy task, but thanks to our team, this herculean task is also handled like butter. Speaking of scams and shady business, every day around 10 scams or shady business are being reported. Apart from that, IEEF is also involved in tournament verification. Thus, every day we get lots of queries about new tournaments that are announced without our verification.

Though verification from us is not mandatory, because we have unearthed so many tournament scams, the esports audience trusts us. After all, it benefits them as they call IEEF “James Bond of the esports industry.” As of now, all the tournament verification or exposé or mediation that we do is totally free of cost.

Q3. With IEEF aiming to do such a great task in the esports industry, what are the inner workings of IEEF?

Kshitij: Inner workings of IEEF are quite simple and normal. Our goals and objectives are very much clear. We have to clean the esports industry and contribute to creating a healthy environment; each team member that has joined IEEF has a similar aim.

We have a complaint cell officer that registers the complaints and provides ticket number. We also have a special team that investigates reported scams/fraud. We have a different team that investigates tournament verification. Mostly for scams and frauds, we make an exposé video, and with all the proof that we have gathered, we just bring it to light and warn the public regarding the scam.

IEEF also has a legal advisor Dr. Mitsu Chavda for serious matters, but she is always kept in the loop with all the other complaints, be it big or small. The work of IEEF is completely secure for our players.

We have more than 15 working staff who attend complaints and investigate them and collect proof. We have a GFX and VFX team to make awareness videos and materials in guidance of the board of directors and legal advisor of IEEF.

We have our sources who give us accurate insiders of any ongoing or would-be scam. I can’t go deep into this as we have privacy policies for IEEF. We are glad to see that we are getting so many applications to volunteer for the cause.

Q4. How do each of the individuals behind IEEF participate in the grand scheme of things? After an allegation about, say, a shady tournament comes to IEEF, do you assign it to one of them, or is it a collaborative effort through and through?

Mitsu and Kshitij: IEEF is all teamwork. As I have already mentioned, we have different teams for registering complaints, for investigation, and for verification. Even for the investigation, we have assigned roles to each and every one based on their education, ability, and talent. The investigation team has been kept anonymous to avoid any allegations in future about any discrepancy or bias.

In fact, even the core committee does not hold any power over them, except the recruitment via election of course. The investigation team itself works unanimously. After the investigation is completed with regards to scams and frauds, if there is any shady business committed, the report will go to the exposé team and the plan of exposing the scam will be executed by the respective team.

While in case of any tournament, the investigation team will generate a verification certificate with a proper QR code and other details, verifying the legitimacy of the tournament. We even listed a few fake tournaments that were requested to be verified by players. We also verify the prize pool source for an announced tournament and their availability.

Whenever a request is submitted by anyone in our complaint section, an executive officer is assigned to a specific complaint, and he and his team start working collecting resources to verify it. We send notifications to specific organizations regarding the complaint we received and asked them to cooperate in resolving the issue.

If that organization clears all steps of verification, we declare it legitimate and provide them with a certificate of legitimacy. If they don’t respond to our messages, we send warnings to esports players that this tournament is suspicious and to not waste time on this.

Q5. GameX being a brand new networking platform for esports, how do you see it catering to the needs of the different stakeholders of the esports ecosystem?

Kshitij: Dr. Mitsu Chavda, IEEF’s legal advisor, has been in this industry for a long time and has many accolades and achievements. Apart from this, she is an excellent public speaker. She has been invited to many stages and platforms for the same, but never as a gamer. She felt a need for such a platform in the esports ecosystem. She felt that there is no stage for gamers, doesn’t matter big or small, to talk about their journey, their ideas, their struggles, etc.

GameX logo

GameX is her brainchild and aims to create a platform for gamers, streamers, and everybody related to esports, so that people around the globe can gain a more robust understanding of the largest issues faced by and within the esports industry, and feed a desire to assist in creating a better and healthier esports industry. Core to the current goal could be a belief that there's no greater force for changing the esports industry than a strong idea.

Q6. How does GameX aim to grow to make a mark in global esports? Does it plan on recruiting esports industry persons from other countries to help in that effort?

Kshitij: In GameX, "X" stands for the guests and speakers that will be part of GameX. GameX is a free-to-use platform for anyone across the world. With prior permission from IEEF, anyone and everyone across the globe can have their own set up of GameX in their city and country.

Hence, we can ensure that people from across the globe will be recruited for the same and will also provide an opportunity to the host to earn from the safe. Not to forget, no discrepancies will be tolerated, and IEEF and Dr. Mitsu Chavda will always be looking over the same.

Q7. What is the idea behind the ECHO? Can you walk us through some of the thought processes and nuances that went into its making?

Mitsu and Kshitij: IEEF always wanted to get closer to the players so that our work at least reaches all of them. We were thinking of ways to connect more with the players, and Anosh Claudis, aka Varun, came up with the idea of ECHO, and at once we all agreed and said, let’s do it digitally through webinars and on-ground through seminars in colleges and school auditoriums.

We have such a great team that worked hard to make Echo 1.0 a success. ECHO’s first session went flawlessly, and the players and guests enjoyed it.

Q8. How do you plan on hosting ECHO sessions? Can you elaborate a bit on the frequency it will be held?

Mitsu and Kshitij: ECHO sessions consist of two levels: 1) digital/virtual webinars, 2) on-ground actions like seminars. However, due to the COVID-19 situation, we will be delaying that part until the pandemic settles down.

After that, we will be aiming for colleges and schools to educate future esport players about their career prospects in the esports industry. ECHO sessions will be held once a month with guests’ speakers of different platforms in the esports industry.

Q9. I am sure GameX and ECHO are huge undertakings. But is there anything on the menu for IEEF in the future after GameX and ECHO?

Mitsu and Kshitij: Yes, there will be a lot coming up after Game X and ECHO. Currently, we are working on a different project for new start-ups in Esports to grow more and be productive for the esports industry. The project is called iMarket. It will cover promotional marketing, advertising, and event management. We will let everyone know after successfully testing/analyzing every project.

Q10. Considering IEEF has a very community-centric job to do, which avenues are you currently trying to connect to the esports fans? How is their response as of yet?

Mitsu and Kshitij: The path of IEEF’s working model consists of complaint resolution, tournament verification, webinars, seminars, promotional marketing, advertising, and event management: both LAN events and small tournaments.

We are getting huge responses from players of various platforms. Our insta handles emails are getting flooded with positive responses and appreciation from players. As we are covering almost all aspects of gaming industry, players and organizations are supporting us with their free will, and we hope that we will meet with government officials for the cause soon.